Too late for a Porter?

[Jens-Kristian]

Fool

Should be doing Scottish Ales in winter

Scottish Ales. :chug: :icon_drool2:

 

[panzerd18]

Fool

Should be doing Scottish Ales in winter

Yum Malty Ale!

 

[Gigantorus]

There will always be a place for a porter either late in the evening or on a cold & windy day.

I also enjoy blending with my porters - maybe half Baltic porter and half amber ale, or half porter and half pale ale. It makes for an interesting drink. Particularly if you are bored with the range you have on hand - blending creates new worlds.

Cheers,
Pete

 

[LAGERFRENZY]

Last night I ended up brewing:
Mangrove Jacks London Bitter pouch
Tin of Amber Ale extract
250 grams of Caramalt and 100 grams of Chocolate steeped for an hour in 2 litres water @ 75 degrees
20 grams each of Fuggles and EKG added to the last ten minutes of the boil in strained steep water with half the liquid malt
Kit comes with excellent MJ Burton Union yeast (10 gram pkt) and is chugging away already this morning
Might dry hop on day four. Thanks to OP for the idea as well as suggestions from others re the malt selection.

 

[Gigantorus]

Last night I ended up brewing:
Mangrove Jacks London Bitter pouch
Tin of Amber Ale extract
250 grams of Caramalt and 100 grams of Chocolate steeped for an hour in 2 litres water @ 75 degrees
20 grams each of Fuggles and EKG added to the last ten minutes of the boil in strained steep water with half the liquid malt
Kit comes with excellent MJ Burton Union yeast (10 gram pkt) and is chugging away already this morning
Might dry hop on day four. Thanks to OP for the idea as well as suggestions from others re the malt selection.

LF,
What can you tell me about the MJ Burton Union yeast thanks? I'm looking for something to use on an English Brown Ale and wondering if this could be the one for it?
Cheers,
Pete

 

[LAGERFRENZY]

LF,
What can you tell me about the MJ Burton Union yeast thanks? I'm looking for something to use on an English Brown Ale and wondering if this could be the one for it?
Cheers,
Pete

Hey Pete - if I had to buy a packet of yeast for an English Ale my first choice would be Nottingham as it has always worked exceptionally well for me. Others swear by Windsor or S04 but I have not had much to do with them. I have used the MJ Bitter pouch kit twice and the yeast has performed well (once rehydrated) both times. These kits are quite a deal more expensive than much of the competition but I think that they are premium product and the manufacturer should get kudos for supplying 10 grams of a high quality yeast that you know will get the job done.
Cheers
Doug

 

[Gigantorus]

Thanks, Doug.

Cheers,
Pete

 

[LAGERFRENZY]

Dry hopped this on day 4 with 20 grams each of Fuggles ad EKG and took a reading and a sneaky taster tonight and ended up guzzling a couple of glasses. No kit twang to speak of and the spec malts seemed just the right balance. The MJ yeast fermented out nicely down to 1008 and did not take away any of the hoppy yumminess.

 

[peekaboo_jones]

Sounds great LagerFrenzy!
Mine is sitting at 1012. Stuck the heater pad under it with a power point timer, 1hr on 1hr off.
Dry hopping with 20g Fuggle, 20g Cascade and about 15g of leftover Azacca.
Tastes really great, more like a hoppy northern English brown ale though. No complaints here

[Edit]
Will cold crash a few days from now

 

[LAGERFRENZY]

Looking good Peek - mine's a little bit darker than yours but likewise is still more of a Brown Ale. I put the darkness down to the Chocolate Malt and I am glad that I only used 100 grams as it is just threatening to dominate. Bottled mine up tonight without cold crashing because I want it all in my belly as soon as possible :chug:

 

[peekaboo_jones]

Hey guys, bottled this over the weekend. Unfortunately I didn't cold crash as I've had the fermenting fridge used for something else last week.
Tastes lovely, the hops seemed to have worked well although next time I'll make without the dark brown sugar and I'd like to do a mini mash with some MO or brown malt.
FG for this was 1008, so it's finished well with trusty old US-05

 

[mofox1]

Need to get on it and brew up a porter, been a little while since I've had one on tap. Definitely recommend brown malt (with a bit of choc, no rb!), although I find that the slight bitter/astringent taste I get from the brown needs to be offset a bit with some crystal malts.

Brown sugar can work... but after a very unhappy experience with dark brown sugar, I'm unlikely to ever use any kind of brown sugar in the foreseeable future. I wasn't kegging at that point, and watching all that effort being tipped down the sink was just heart breaking.

Note on the brown, it needs mashing so a partial with some MO is a good choice as it has the diastatic power to convert itself with plenty of enzymes left over for the brown. Alternately American pale malts, or gladfields pale malts are good too.

Edit: The dark brown sugar experience was with a stout, not a porter... but horrible nonetheless!

 

[LAGERFRENZY]

Hey guys, bottled this over the weekend. Unfortunately I didn't cold crash as I've had the fermenting fridge used for something else last week.
Tastes lovely, the hops seemed to have worked well although next time I'll make without the dark brown sugar and I'd like to do a mini mash with some MO or brown malt.
FG for this was 1008, so it's finished well with trusty old US-05

Good to here it worked out well Peek - looking forward to hearing the tasting notes when it conditions.

 

[LAGERFRENZY]

Three weeks in the bottle and very pleased with the end result. Warmer weather already starting in Brissie so will have to get these down smartish.

 

[Wolfman1]

Try demarra sugar instead of brown sugar. It's like a darker raw sugar which worked well in my last porter

 

[Wolfman1]

I was inspired by this thread and just put a porter down.
Coopers English Bitter can + Mangrove Jack Amber can, 375g demarra sugar. 300g crystal, 500g smoked and 100g choc all Mashed for 90 mins at 66 and 15g of Styrian Goldings boiled for 5 mins.
Gravity was 1060, so it should finish up around 6.5% when bottled.

The smokey taste was coming through in the gravity sample so it might have been a bit much. I was inspired by Smog town smoked porter and almost 30% of their grain bill is smoked.

I'll bottle it and stick it to the back of the beer cupboard and it should be just right for next winter. Seeing as the blossoms are on the trees, its time to get prepared

 

[peekaboo_jones]

Hey guys, glad a made it nice and hoppy! It's probably even more towards a hoppy American brown ale to be honest.

I just got a Robobrew, so looking forward to exploring the goods of grain brewing soon. Thanks for the recipe suggestions at the start of the thread. I'll have a crack